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for the blast that rattled downtown Nashville on Christmas morning, social media users have invented their own far-fetched theories. Law enforcement authorities have suggested that Warner may have been paranoid about 5G technology, a QAnon-related conspiracy theory that makes an array of unproven claims including that ithelps spread COVID-19and is used as a spying tool by the government. The report claims the results of the election in . It's just the latest example of how people's lives are being upended and potentially ruined by the unprecedented flurry of disinformation this year. The Poynter Institute Menu. . There is no evidence that the AT&T switching center damaged by the explosion (here) housed a supercomputer being used to alter the elections outcome. Some of the posts attempted to further link AT&T to Dominion by claiming a former owner of the AT&T building was a board member of a firm that owns Dominion. "You may want to read a book some day to learn about my reference to rising like a #phoenix. John Bazemore/AP "Very, very interesting.". "And I probably will. The voting conspiracy theories that have led millions of Republicans to feel as though the election was stolen from them, which are still spreading, have also led to calls for Coomer's head. On January 8, it filed a defamation suit against pro-Trump attorney Sidney Powell, seeking $1.3 billion in damages. Generally speaking, the media in those locations are kinda clamoring to get unofficial results as quickly as possible., When asked if the desire for speed was at odds with accuracy and security, Burt said, its not my place to judge that.. Some users seemed to recognize the story as fake, but others didnt. More than a month ago, Eric Coomer went into hiding. In the weeks following the election, the election technology firm Dominion Voting Systems has been the target of baseless allegations of election fraud, according to the Washington Post.Now a viral Facebook post attempts to connect President-elect Joe Biden to the company by claiming his sister is married to Stephen Owens, who, the post alleges, owns Dominion Voting Systems. Powell is named in Coomer's suit, along with the president's personal lawyer, Rudy Giuliani. This article was produced by the Reuters Fact Check team. While the companys website states that zero of its voting tabulators are connected to the internet, ES&S told NBC News 14,000 of their DS200 tabulators with online modems are currently in use around the country. subscribe to our print edition, ad-free app or electronic newspaper replica here, Your California Privacy Rights/Privacy Policy. Read more about our fact-checking work here . However, there are no news reports available online that mention that the business was involved with an investigation related to the election, and Google searches for any mention of the company and an investigation into ballot fraud from the start of September to the date of the fire do not reveal even online rumors to that effect circulating before the fire broke out (here), The companys Facebook page has addressed rumors that have spread since the fire, saying: To the misinformed people on @Twitter and @instagram #cityblueimaging does not print #ballots (here). In counties that used Dominion systems, Biden got 888,259 votes to Trump's 851,069. The claim: Dominion Voting Systems is tied up in the Nashville bombing, based on the affected AT&T building's ownership and that the cellular company was contracted to audit Dominion's. The extent of our relationship is this: In 2009, Smartmatic licensed the use of a Dominion voting machine for use in the Philippines. The conspiracy theory has grown into a movement that is promoted by right-wing extremists. Speaker 13 . Social media posts from the event tagged the far-right group the Proud Boys. That's false. The services and oversight found in the Secretary of State's office reach every department and agency in state government. Similar claims have been shared in hundreds of public posts, according to CrowdTangle, a social media insights tool. The Christmas morning bomb went off on Second Avenue, outside an AT&T transmission building. Even in an election where almost all the voting was recorded on paper ballots and rigorous audits were done more than ever before, none of that helps if millions of people are working with an alternative set of facts, said Joe Kiniry, chief scientist of the open-source election technology company Free & Fair. In an all-caps tweet on Saturday night, Trump highlighted a report from One America News Network (OANN), a right-wing outlet, that claimed voting machines made by Dominion Voting Systems. AT&T does not hold a contract to audit Dominions software or machines and did not have any of the companys equipment in its Nashville building. Thats an interesting coincidence.. These are real, tangible things coming out of these baseless accusations.". The conspiracy theory appears to have originated in a tweet by Lin Wood, an attorney and Trump supporter, who has pushed a number of false election claims. Three days later, on November 6th, AT&T named William "Bill" E. Kennard Chairman of its Board of Directors. Those networks are among the defendants Coomer is suing. The post reads: In Nashville 2 days ago an RV pulled up to a building and over a loud speaker announced to clear the area..the RV then blew up taking half a building with it..oh, minor detail - inside that building were the Dominion voting machines being audited. While the post does not specify which building they believed the machines were held in, a Dominion Voting Systems spokesperson said by email that none of their machines were anywhere in the area of the explosion or were being audited in Nashville that day. AT&T does not hold a contract to audit Dominions software or machines and did not have any of the companys equipment in its Nashville building. The electronic voting system company accused the television network of spreading lies that Dominion machines were used to rig the 2020 election against Donald Trump. Skoglund and his team developed a tool that scoured the internet to see if the central computers that program voting machines and run the entire election process at the precinct level were online. Some of the posts (here) try connect the explosion to Bill Clinton and Barack Obama by claiming that William Kennard, Obamas EU ambassador and Clintons FCC chair, is on AT&Ts board and owns the Nashville AT&T building that was destroyed in the blast. A Dominion voting machine in Georgia. As of now, the person of interest identified by the FBI in connection with the explosion, Anthony Quinn Warner, is believed to have been "paranoid about 5G technology" (another frequent subject of conspiracy theories) rather than possessing any election-related motive. The bulletin circulated among state election officials earlier this week and publicly shared online, Friday marks the first time CISA has used its vulnerability disclosure program to probe . THE FACTS: As federal officials work to piece together a motive for the blast that rattled downtown Nashville on Christmas morning, social media users have invented their own far-fetched theories. And thats not what were about. The bomber was lateridentified by U.S. Attorney Don Cochranas Anthony Warner, 63, according to The Tennessean. These are conspiracies manufactured out of whole cloth.. One of the largest voting machine suppliers in the U.S. Dominion Voting Systems sued Rudy Giuliani and Sidney Powell, who represented former President Donald Trump, after they . Critics also argue ES&S has mislead jurisdictions into thinking their DS200 tabulators with modems are certified by the U.S. Election Assistance Commission, a claim they say is grounds for an investigation. President Donald Trump's attorney Lin Wood reportedly experienced a series of ups and downs Sunday in a court battle to ensure Georgia elections officials do not wipe Dominion voting machines, and won a temporary restraining order following a night-time Zoom hearing. DNA found at the scene matched Warner's, according to an FBI press release. Reuters found no evidence that Cerberus Capital Management (www.cerberus.com/) owns Dominion. The RV was parked on Second Avenue in Nashville, outside an AT&Ttransmission building, among other businesses and residences. Early Christmas morning, police in Nashville came across an RV parked on Second Avenue, outside an AT&T transmission building, whileresponding to reports of shots fired in the area, Metro Nashville P, Fact check: Joe Biden legally won presidential election, despite persistent contrary claims, Neighbor recalls warning, countdown before Nashville explosion, Fact check: Viral photo shows fake logo and slogan for Dominion Voting Systems, Fact check: No, Joe Biden's brother-in-law does not own Dominion Voting Systems, Nashville officials resolved to find bombing suspects, learn motive behind explosion, "Nashville bombing: What we know about downtown explosion on Christmas morning, FBI Memphis Special Agent in Charge Announces Identity of Remains Discovered in Nashville Explosion Site; Multi-Agency Investigation Continues, FBI identifies suspect in Nashville bombing, AT&T outage Sunday updates: 'Progress continues' in restoring service after Nashville bombing, Dominion Voting Systems Acquired by its Management Team and Staple Street Capital. Singer reportedly funded the original investigation Tre Hargett was elected by the Tennessee General Assembly to serve as Tennessees 37th secretary of state in 2009 and re-elected in 2013, 2017, and 2021. Spokespeople for both AT&T and Dominion have confirmed that AT&T did not hold a contract to audit Dominion, nor had any of Dominions equipment been moved to Nashville in preparation for such an audit. "Coincidence? "I actually am in fear for my safety," Coomer said recently, speaking by video call from an undisclosed location to Colorado Public Radio. Posts include debunked conspiracy claims attempting to tie the Nashville explosion Dominion voting systems. Some of Trump's supporters have focused on Coomer as the supposed evil mastermind. Donate State Editions California Florida 2023 www.statesman.com. The building of City Blue Imaging (www.cityblueimaging.com/), a printing company in Rochester, New York, burnt down on Christmas morning after catching fire the night before ( here , here and here ). But companies that specialize in the subject said it is getting exponentially worse. https://archive.is/qqjBh Paul E. Singer-Elliott Management, aka "The Vulture", reportedly controls CNN parent, AT&T, as well as Twitter. "AT&T got a contract to do forensic audit on Dominion voting machines and those machines were being moved to Nashville this past week," one Dec. 27postsays. Its crazy, the amount of misinformation that you see, Mealy said. So many government officials like Manfra have said the same thing over the last few years that it is commonly accepted as gospel by most Americans. Bogus conspiracy theory spreading online claims the Nashville bombing was an attempt to cover up voter fraud. The conservative network has seen its ratings surge in . On Christmas morning of 2020, a recreational vehicle exploded on the streets of Nashville near a building owned by AT&T that lies one block from the companys office tower. Cerberus Capital did briefly own an AT&T building, but the post is wrong about which one. AT&T not conducting voting machine audit near Nashville explosion site. So, the explosion just happened to be at the AT&T location where they just so happen to control the cooling system for the super computer and house the dominion voting machines and drives for forensic audit, Wait, the bombing in Nashville was at the AT&T data center right after they got the contract to audit the Dominion voting machines? read another post. Your membership is the foundation of our sustainability and resilience. Let's start here: The man behind the Dec. 25 bombing in downtown Nashville, Tenn., died of COVID-19, according to a popular and wrong Facebook post. As people experience their own individual Internet bubbles, it can be hard to recognize just how much misinformation exists and how the current information ecosystem compares with previous years. There is no evidence to support the claim that the Nashville bombing or City Blue Imaging's fire were connected to election malfeasance, so we rate this claim FALSE. On Tuesday, Coomer sued the Trump campaign and a number of allies, alleging defamation. At its core is the prediction thatan alleged mass arrest ofhigh-profile Democrats and celebritieswould be carried out while now-former President Donald Trump secretly savedthe world from a satanic cult of pedophiles and cannibals. The bomb squad was en route. With the 2020 presidential election only ten months away, Appel and Skoglund believe all modems can and should be removed from election systems. See here for a complete list of exchanges and delays. A sample ballot is shown via the Dominion Voting Systems that Georgians use to vote. The Genesius Times describes itself as the "most reliable source of fake news on the planet" and that it strives "to provide the most up-to-date, accurate fake news on the Internet,", "Nashville explosion a missile strike??" If you have super majorities, Tennessee is like an R plus twenty state. As of Friday, a motive in the bombing remained under investigation by the FBI, the ATF and Metro Nashville police. Dominion Voting Systems previously sent OAN letters threatening to sue, accusing the network of spreading the unsubstantiated conspiracy theory that the election-technology company manipulated. With unfounded fraud claims swirling, red California county dumps Dominion voting machines. Cerberus Capital Management, the firm named in the posts, does not own Dominion, nor does it own the company that does own Dominion, Staple Street Capital. Coomer said the first barb aimed at him came five days after the election. The same Facebook post also said Dominion voting machines were being audited in the AT&T building that was destroyed by a bomb in Nashville. Even though it has a blue Nashville and a blue Memphis. Jim Greer, associate vice president for corporate communications at AT&T, was blunt in an email response to PolitiFact: "That is not true," he wrote. An executive for a voting machine company that has been the target of conspiracy theories in the aftermath of Donald Trump's 2020 election loss and been baselessly accused of swinging the. Please note t he instructions and videos shown here have been prepared by the manufacturers and are general in nature. Yet internet sleuths are searching for their own answers, some looking atthin ties toconspiracy theories about the 2020 election as evidence of a broader plot. So that unofficial election results can more quickly be relayed to the public. The explosion injured three other people and damaged businesses in downtown Nashville, including an AT&T switching center, which resulted in widespread communications outages. In an email to PolitiFact, a Dominion spokesperson said the company and AT&T are calling on everyone to reject these baseless rumors: "Americans should continue to seek information from verifiable, trusted sources, such as law enforcement authorities.". The user who created the post did not respond to USA TODAY's request for comment. 2023 USA TODAY, a division of Gannett Satellite Information Network, LLC. Authorities still dont know the reason for the Christmas day bombing, but theres no evidence it was election related. ( here and here ). Now, the alleged Dominion Voting Systems tie. The company, which sells electronic voting hardware and software, contends that some Fox News employees deliberately amplified false claims by Trump supporters that Dominion machines had changed . For Coomer, that means his life may be forever changed. There is no evidence to support the claim that the explosionin Nashville and fire in Rochester, New York,that occurred around the holidays point toward a broader conspiracy to hide election malfeasance. "Anthony Warner is the bomber. But that is an overstatement, according to a team of 10 independent cybersecurity experts who specialize in voting systems and elections. causing widespread communications outages. There may not be answers to the Christmas Day bombing in Nashville anytime soon. He is focused on New Technologies around AI led Predictive Analytics, Smart Machines, IT Process Automation etc.. through . The following three posts were flagged as part of Facebooks efforts to combat false news and misinformation on its News Feed. Videos from law enforcement officials and local businesses show that the explosion occurred on 2nd Avenue North in downtown Nashville. "Some of the threats that I've gotten have made very clear that these actors are in it for the long haul. Next theory: The bombing was an attempt to stop an AT&T audit into Dominion software and cover up election corruption. Dominion Voting Systems on Tuesday morning filed three $1.6 billion defamation lawsuits against two pro-Trump media networks and an outspoken Trump ally, the latest in a string of suits from the . Jim Greer, a spokesperson for AT&T,also told USA TODAY the claims are "not true.". That is just inviting trouble.. The posts all tie AT&T with Dominion, holding the explosion to be alleged proof of conspiracy. Spokespeople for both AT&T and Dominion have confirmed that AT&T did not hold a contract to audit Dominion, nor had any of Dominions equipment been moved to Nashville in preparation for such an audit. Even if an election is run perfectly, it doesn't matter to a sizable portion of the public who believes it was unfair. Social media users have been sharing content online that claims AT&T had a contract to do a forensic audit on Dominion Voting Systems machines and that the Dec. 25 explosion in Nashville, which damaged an AT&T building, was tied to this audit. In counties that didn't use Dominion systems, Biden got 1.54 million votes to Trump's 1.52 million. Recently, however, there are signs that elections companies, like some election officials, are pushing back against the false accusations. Last week, Dominion filed its fourth defamation lawsuit, this one a $1.6 billion whopper charging that Fox News spread the bogus conspiracy claim in order to boost ratings that plummeted after. The accusation started with a conservative activist in Colorado, Joe Oltmann. "Bombing investigations can take years," Darrell DeBusk, an FBI spokesman based inTennessee, told The Tennessean. Owners of Dominion Voting Systems,(the company many people are accusing of voter fraud) are former executives from Cerebus," another post reads. However, he is not tied to Joe Biden and is not his sister Valerie Biden Owens husband. Dominion has no connection to AT&T, the building, Nashville, family members of the Bidens or the Clintons, and Staple Street is not owned by Cerberus, said Tony Fratto, a partner at the PR firm Hamilton Place Strategies who emailed the AP on behalf of Dominion. We rate thisclaim as FALSE, because it wasn't supported by our research. Serious political tensions and fears of COVID-19 have led record-breaking numbers of Americans to vote early this year, either by mail or in person. "So, the explosion just happened to be at the AT&T location where they just so happen to control the cooling system for the super computer and house the dominion voting machines and drives for forensic audit", "Wait, the bombing in Nashville was at the AT&T data center right after they got the contract to audit the Dominion voting machines?,"onefrom Dec. 26 reads. The posts on social mediaallege the bombing is tied to Dominion Voting Systems, an election technology supplier that's been central to many right-wing, QAnon-adjacent conspiracy theories about the 2020 election. Dominion did not respond to numerous requests from NBC News for their sales numbers. You cansubscribe to our print edition, ad-free app or electronic newspaper replica here. This weekend, both Fox Business Network and Newsmax appeared to answer those demands with segments debunking some claims. CLAIM: AT&T got a contract to do a forensic audit of Dominion Voting Systems machines and those machines were recently moved . There can still be security holes that allow hackers to get into the phone network.. While a building was destroyed in a blast in Nashville on Christmas Day, and a printing company in New York state caught fire on Christmas Eve and later burned down, neither building held evidence related to the U.S. elections. "I've been threatened more times than I could even count. the post reads. We kept hearing from election officials that voting machines were never on the internet, he said. The AT&T building the posts likely refer to was not the one outside which the bomb exploded on Christmas morning. Tim Walz signed into law one of the largest voter . False. Dominion is a company that supplies voting machines in more than two-dozen states, including Ohio. Dominion has been the target of a wide range of false posts since American voters chose Joe Biden as their next president, despite no evidence of widespread fraud or irregularities in the 2020 election. Warner died in the blast, according to authorities. Detailed voter instructions for the Infinity voting unit, How to Vote an Optical Scan Ballot with Unisyn Equipment, Public Records Policy and Records Request Form. More:Fact check: No, Joe Biden's brother-in-law does not own Dominion Voting Systems. "AT&T got a contract to do forensic audit on Dominion voting machines and those machines were being moved to Nashville this past week," one Dec. 27 post says. The broadcast then began a 15-minute countdown,before the RV exploded, according to The Tennessean. Some posts take the claim a step further, alleging that the former owner of the building was a board member of a firm that owns Dominion. The post provides no links to evidence for their allegations. He was present when the bomb went off, and he perished in the bombing," Cochran said. Dominion Voting Systems which commands more than a third of the voting-machine market without having Washington lobbyists has hired its first, a high-powered firm that includes a. AT&T and Verizon and so on try and protect as best they can the security of their phone network from the rest of the internet, but its still part of the internet, Appel explained. Some posts have said the Nashville explosion was caused by a missile. But none of this is true. The three largest voting manufacturing companies Election Systems &Software, Dominion Voting Systems and Hart InterCivic have acknowledged they all put modems in some of their tabulators and scanners. The wishes are that I forever have to look over my shoulder," Coomer said. But Skogland points to some good news. Dominion Voting Systems CEO John Poulos is not ruling out legal action against President Trump, whose surrogates have spent nearly two months alleging the Nov. 3 election, which Trump lost, may . According to Dominion, vote-switching and software malfunction allegations are "all baseless claims" that "have been debunked by election officials, subject matter experts and third-party fact. Dominion Voting Systems, Inc. provides voting machines and tabulators. This article was produced by the Reuters Fact Check team. "When we're in the realm of coupling disinformation from both foreign and domestic sources, and government and nongovernment sources, and none of it is really grounded in reality evidence doesn't help much," he said. The companys sales manager, John Mealey ( here , here ), also spoke about the rumor to local ABC affiliate WHAM-TV, saying: Its crazy, the amount of misinformation that you see.. No amount of transparency at the county and state level can really combat the sort of megaphone that Trump wields, Kiniry says. This is bogus. Donald Trump went after media mogul Rupert Murdoch and his network Fox News in rants on Truth Social where he once again pushed the baseless and debunked claim that the . The three largest voting manufacturing companies Election Systems &Software, Dominion Voting Systems and Hart InterCivic have acknowledged they all put modems in some of their tabulators. The Trump followers believe that the explosion was actually a missile strike aimed at destroying. In addition to Coomer's lawsuit, Dominion is threatening legal action against Sidney Powell, who has been among the loudest voices pushing conspiracy theories on behalf of the Trump campaign. It is true Kennard serves on the board of Staple Street Capital (not Staple Street execs as the posts say). These are conspiracies manufactured out of whole cloth. Voting Systems in Tennessee | Tennessee Secretary of State Proposed Constitutional Amendments Voting Systems in Tennessee View list by county (.pdf) and learn more about each system using the links below. Secretary Hargett is the chief executive officer of the Department of State with oversight of more than 300 employees. Thank you for supporting our journalism. Then, a plume of smoke rises behind three light poles. "Fuck a drag bill," they wrote in an Instagram post. The post's creator did not respond to USA TODAY's request for comment. A newly-released court filing in the Dominion voting machines defamation lawsuit . "So, the explosion 'just happened .